i find it kinda silly that warlocks have marks but nephilim don’t, considering the fact that angle blood is potent as fuck
Thus the eternal popularity of wing!fic/wing!art, yes? 💘
On the one hand, this could just be because angels and demons are opposing forces, one cancelling out the other, diametrically opposed on a metaphysical/magical level, so their powers manifest in different ways in their children.
(They're mostly all rather absurdly beautiful after all. Maybe that's their angel mark? *snickers*)
On the other hand, in a slightly more jilly likes making up magic lore point... maybe nephilim aren't half-angel in at all the same way warlocks are half-demon?
And this got long and rambly, so:
It is canon that the children of nephilim are always nephilim... which isn't how inheritance works, generally speaking.
If nephilim were half-angel/half-human in a biological sense, then shadowhunters would presumably be sterile, a combination of two barely compatible bloodlines just like warlocks.
But they can have children. Perhaps that's just something about angelic bloodlines, a power aimed more at life than the demonic bloodlines that seem more like death? (If that was it though, one wonders why would demons be able to have half-human children at all?)
If it was somehow just inheritance, even hand-wavey magical inheritance, nephilim should, one would think, be getting less and less angelic over time, no matter how carefully the Clave tries to manage their family lines.
(And losing the Mortal Cup really would be a death knell for the world, because the nephilim would in fact die out no matter how many children they tried to have, and then the demons would win. It might take awhile, depending on how frequent one thinks incursions are, and how many nephilim there were before the uprising, but still. There is no balance, just inevitable defeat.)
But modern shadowhunters are still capable of killing demons, can still use adamas and runes, can still (however reprehensible this is) overpower and subjugate the down world.
They continue to have angelic power no matter how removed they are from their founders.
They also continue to have angelic powers even when infected/attack by demonic ones. You literally can't take the angel out of a nephilim.
Otherwise Jonathan Morgenstern wouldn't have been able to bear runes, Tessa wouldn't have been able to have children in the books, Luke wouldn't have been a shadowhunter again after his lycanthropy was cured in the TV show. (Deruned shadowhunters wouldn't explicitly be so tempting to demons once they lose their protections.) Which does at first sound like they're still half-angel under the demonic corruption...
BUT!
Fallen angels also still have angelic power, despite being 100% demon.
Magnus' ability to interact with adamas/shadowhunter tools makes that explicit: he's partially angelic even as a half-demon/half-human warlock.
Which is too many halves if nephilim abilities came from being half-angel!
Perhaps, angelic power literally can't be broken down, regardless of anything else happening around it or containing it... instead, angelic grace is simply eternal. Immutable, irresistible, unavoidable... once seen it is never ever forgotten.
Thus purging the angelic core works against Lilith without also making the Institute defenseless, the so-called Herondale birthmark never fades. (Does this mean Clary and her bloodline will also be marked somehow, in a way we have yet to see defined in canon, Ithuriel's grace made manifest on them forever?)
If we follow that logic through the aforementioned Tessa/Jonathan/Luke (perhaps even Max Trueblood and any other deruned shadowhunters who go on to live mundane lives) maybe nephilim are actually still just human. They have children, they live, they grow old, they die.
Perhaps nephilim are forever touched by angelic grace, but never actually part of it?
(Is this in fact part of what makes angels different than demons? They will not corrupt or twist humanity into something other, but they will grant a gift. One that is inhuman, amoral, one that burns cold and eternal and is necessary, perhaps, but not kind. Is this their true problem with Clary's use of runes in the TV show, that she is twisting humanity into something else, that she is corrupting them by combining angelic and demonic and human in a way that is anathema and dangerous to angelic grace? Angels do not interfere with humanity, except to try and prevent demons from interfering with humanity. Thus never stopping Valentine, or interfering with the Clave no matter how ruthless they became. Their sins were still human sins, not demonic ones.)
Maybe nephilim are not inherently immune to demonic influence, to possession or bearing demonic children. The gift of grace allows them to access angelic power, lets them use it to actively protect themselves, much like they're trained to fight and use runes and forge adamas etc. but they are still just human.
This makes Valentine's ability to 'create' a demon that can sneak into the Institute and possess shadowhunters (can kill Jocelyn and poison Izzy) much more palatable. He's not creating something that can bypass nephilim nature. He just found a way past the tools they use to protect themselves.
SO!
Back to my meta on your actual original comment.
Perhaps nephilim do not have marks in the way that warlocks do because they're not half angel.
They're infected like werewolves or vampires, just with a more difficult transmission, only possible through children rather than blood or violence. (And isn't that actually the first thing that does make sense as an angelic trait? Family and bonds and love and life, not death, as the only way to succeed, as the only way to continue.)
They have symptoms of angelic grace, a magical counter to demonic corruption: fortitude and beauty and the ability to use angelic tools. They're the opposing force to vampire speed and seduction and fangs, to werewolf strength and pack and transformation.
This is why they can't do magic like warlocks and seelies, even if they are supernatural. This is why they're still mortal. They're still just human however hard they try to pretend otherwise.
At some level, this is probably part of why the Clave despises werewolves and vampires even more than fae and warlocks. They're all too similar, too clearly an illustration of there but for the grace of angels...
i always liked the thought that outside of the persona that he presents, magnus is terribly domestic bc he seems that he would curl up on a couch with his lover and just be yk? like i bet that he has had relationships that were just sex and partying but i bet if he was given a choice he would choose to spend the evening in and watching a movie
Quite possibly.
I do think that Magnus, (much like Alec in fact, if in a slightly different way), is very good at giving anyone he is with the experience that they most want.
He enjoys performing, whether he is highlighting or subverting expectations, I believe he loves putting on a show and he is perfectly capable of tailoring that show to his audience. Part of this is survival, part of this is avoiding conflict, part of this is politics, but it seems clear he does actually also like it or he wouldn't have chosen such an extravagant persona (or bothered with all the necessary closet space to hold his wardrobe 😅).
He likes planning parties which is a different skill-set than just attending them after all. He wants to create an environment, set the stage, organize the comforts and attractions and entertainment and etc.
Magnus does in fact also enjoy people. He likes parties and dancing and afternoon tea and anything else that gives him that jolt of interaction and appreciation. He does seem to legitimately be an extrovert who feels recharged after social interaction; especially if he knows he's the one who made it a good experience for everyone involved. (Or a bad one, if he's intimidating people. There's some pride involved, I think, in knowing he can have whatever effect he wants, regardless of what anyone else is expecting.)
He is much better at grand gestures of devotion and friendship (and money and power) because that ties back into him being in control of his interactions and his vulnerabilities and other people's expectations.
So I don't think he dislikes being a party person, or his extravagant High Warlock persona, or that he was at all unsatisfied with whirlwind dramatic relationships full of parties and dancing and shows and travel. Those are all things he can do, and do well, and gets a kick out of.
However satisfying it is to do the things you're good at, and know that you're sweeping someone else along with something they enjoy, I do think sometimes he hid himself within those extravagances; avoided smaller intimacies of domestic chores and quietly reading on opposite sides of the couch, etc. because then he'd have to share control, which is terrifying when you're as aware as he is of all the ways an intimate friend or partner can (purposefully or not) betray or hurt you.
He offers the high life because he can, and once upon a time he couldn't, and most people enjoy it and are impressed by it. HOWEVER, I do agree that that's not really the point for him, and sometimes it was definitely another layer of armor between his bruised heart and the world.
All he needs from a partner is their attention. (I know the love languages book is nonsense, but, it will be a useful framework for my rambling, so! Let's imagine it's not.) I think his personal love language is simply quality time. Someone who wants to be with him, regardless of time or place or consequences or conveniences, who doesn't just want his money or magic, but will not flinch from those parts of him either. Who may not need him to take care of them, but won't push him away when he does anyway.
Which is of course exactly what Alec offers with his single-minded focus and devotion to the partner he's chosen, and which most of us cannot do to at all the same extent. (Which is why Alec feels vaguely useless to Magnus most of the time, because everyone else he's ever known or loved has required his actions not just his presence, and is also why Magnus cannot understand that insecurity at all, because no one else has ever just looked at Magnus without all the trappings and been enraptured.)
But! Back to the original premise.
Alec is not an extrovert and hates putting on a show and does not trust large crowds of people to avoid being stupid, so in fact once they are together I do believe they are usually very quietly domestic at home, because the setting, for Magnus, is incidental to the fact that they're spending time together, so he is perfectly content making sure Alec is comfortable wherever they are, and that they have that quiet time together reasonably often.
(I do think Magnus and Alec spend a lot of time in physical contact, cuddling or hand-holding or working on similar projects in shared space, because Alec's love language is very clearly physical touch. He is more than capable of showing his love and care to people in their own languages, time or gifts or words or service, but all he really needs is for the people he's worried about to be close enough to hold onto.)
i think the fandom doesn’t capitalize on the fact that Alec is a older brother, that man probably has so much more black mail on Izzy and Jace then they do on him
#mood
Izzy and Jace have nothing they can use on Alec.
One: They didn't think they'd ever need to because they thought they knew what he'd do in most situations (say no and then begrudgingly help them anyway, and tbf to them, they're mostly not wrong pre-Magnus)
Two: He is so aggressively self-contained for survival reasons that the only 'secrets' either of them has on him are the facts that he's gay and he and his mother have a fucked up relationship and THOSE ARE NOT THINGS YOU CAN USE FOR 'friendly family blackmail'.
Three: Alec is a tactician, he is observant, he is ruthless. He knows everything Izzy and Jace have ever done and the fact that he (as far as we know) never uses any of it is amazing and a little heart-breaking because he could have manipulated and threatened the fuck out of them and made his own life so much easier and he never ever did.
